Australia to abstain from Palestinian vote

Bob Carr says Australia's decision will not affect its relationship with the US.

AAP: Lukas Coch

Australia will abstain from a vote later this week on whether the Palestinian territories should be granted observer status at the United Nations.

The issue has prompted heated debate among Labor MPs, with some in the Left suggesting a vote in favour of the Palestinian territories would promote peace.

The ABC understands Julia Gillard wanted to vote against the plan but was under pressure from her party to vote yes.

Backbencher Andrew Leigh planned to put a motion to today's caucus meeting calling for Australia to back Palestinian membership, but withdrew it once Ms Gillard proposed Australia abstain from the UN vote.

Foreign Affairs Minister Bob Carr says the Prime Minister has shown strong leadership over the issue and that voting no would have indicated Australia did not support Palestinian statehood in any context.

He says Ms Gillard made the right decision in deciding Australia would abstain.

"I saw a Prime Minister engaging with party opinion, listening to what people had to say from all over the nation, and from every corner of Labor opinion and doing what good leaders do, and that is speak for the whole party," he said.

"This vote had become a referendum on the idea of a Palestinian state, and if we'd voted no it would be widely interpreted that we don't support Palestinian statehood."

A clear majority of countries is expected to support the resolution, however abstaining puts Australia in a different position to Israel, which opposes granting the territories observer status.

'Cause of peace'

I genuinely believed (voting no) would be a foreign policy catastrophe and one of the worst decisions we could possibly make if we were to go down this particular path.

Former foreign minister Gareth Evans

Former foreign minister Gareth Evans has been briefing MPs, and former prime minister Bob Hawke made his views known.

Both are strong supporters of Israel, but they are in favour of Palestinian observer status.

Mr Evans says he thinks Israel has misread the situation by not recognising that the best way to shore up the Palestinian National Authority is to support the resolution.

He told Alexandra Kirk from PM that if they did not, the wind would be in Hamas's sails.

"My very strong view was that to vote no on this resolution would be not to help the cause of peace, not to help Israel, and to be putting Australia absolutely on the wrong side of history in terms of our region and in terms of our capacity to be a credible and effective performer on the Security Council over the next two years," he said.

"I genuinely believed that this would be a foreign policy catastrophe and one of the worst decisions we could possibly make if we were to go down this particular path."

Professor Evans said he was happy to recommend to MPs that Australia abstain, calling it an "entirely defensible fallback" to a yes vote.

"A yes vote or an abstention vote were equally acceptable and would be equally understood internationally," he said.